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Refusenik

Nine Poems by Paul Richards

Refusenik cover

Equipment USA, a poem from Refusenik, is best listened to while stuck in a traffic jam. Click on the play button below to hear it. The audio recording included in this post is an excerpt from the Nina Serrano KPFA interview of me from her program Open Book. Refusenik is available as a paperback and an ebook from Amazon.com.

From the end of the war in Vietnam, through the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, the world transformed many times over and carried me with it. As I went through those decades, these poems rose to the top and I wrote them down. I discovered my family history and roots through the Frank family reunions in the late 1980s and through discovering and then adopting the website Richards Cousins created by my cousin Rose Richards back in Minnesota. Refusenik, the main poem of the chapbook, reflects the awareness that came out of my explorations of my ancestors. Now, decades later, retired from the trades, active as a publisher, I put these nine poems together as Estuary Press Chapbook No. 1. I would never have done this without the encouragement of Nina Serrano whose poetry inspires me and whose love lights up my life.

About Estuary Press: Estuary Press is the publisher of Nicaragua Way by Nina Serrano and Heart Suite, a trilogy of three books of poetry by Nina Serrano. It is also the home of the Harvey Richards Media Archive, a repository of photography and video documentaries of the social change and political movements during the 1960s and 1970s. Contact Paul Richards (510) 967 5577, paulrichards@estuarypress.com or visit estuarypress.com for more details.